Wood slicer machine

ABSTRACT

A wood stock slicer machine for slicing a wood stock having a bar, pillar, thick plate or the like, cut by cut into thin sliced sheets having preferably a thickness of the order of 0.2 - 2.0 mm. by performing the slicing operation in the axial direction and generally in a parallel direction to the orientation of the wood fibers of the stock. The machine is provided with a stationary table in which a cutter unit is adjustably provided, with said unit having a cutter knife with its cutting edge arranged in an acute angle relative to the travelling direction of the stock on the table. Above the table, there is provided a stock feed unit, the positional level of the latter unit relative to said table being adjustable by a manipulating unit mechanically coupled with said stock feed unit. The sliced product is discharged downwardly through a discharge opening formed through said table and partially defined by said cutting edge. The stock feed unit includes a rotatable belt which is resiliently pressurized at its lower side run, so as to compensate for possible undulations for positive and accurate force-feed of the stock by keeping pressure contact of said belt with the upper surface thereof.

Unite States Patent [191 Mochizuki Jan.8,1974

W001i) SLICIER MACHINE Nakataro Mochizuki, Shizuoka, I Japan Assignee: Marunaka Tekkosho lnc.,

Shizuoka-shi, Japan Filed: May 9, 1972 Appl. No.: 251,698

lnventor:

U.S. CI 144/175, 144/245 A, 144/120 Int. Cl B27] 5/06 Field of Search 144/ 175, .162, 120,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3/1881 Hazeland 144/120 2/1958 McCahon et al. 1441245 A Primary ExaminerDonald R. Schran Attorney-John C. Holman et al.

[5 7] ABSTRACT A wood stock slicer machine for slicing a wood stock having a bar, pillar, thick plate or the like, cut by cut into thin sliced sheets having preferably a thickness of the order of 0.2 2.0 mm. by performing the slicing operation in the axial direction and generally in a parallel direction to the orientation of the wood fibers of the stock.

The machine is provided with a stationary table in which a cutter unit is adjustably provided, with said unit having a cutter knife with its cutting edge arranged in an acute angle relative to the travelling direction of the stock on the table.

Above the table, there is provided a stock feed unit, the positional level of the latter unit relative to said table being adjustable by a manipulating unit mechanically coupled with said stock feed unit. The sliced product is discharged downwardly through a discharge opening formed through said table and partially defined by said cutting edge. The stock feed unit includes a rotatable belt which is resiliently pressurized at its lower side run, so as to compensate for possible undulations for positive and accurate force-feed of the stock by keeping pressure contact of said belt with the upper surface thereof.

4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PMENTEDJAH 8 IBM SHEET 10? 4 FIGI woou sLrcEu MACHENE BACKGROUND OF THE, INVENTION This invention relates to a wood slicer machine.

PRIOR ART The conventional drum type slicer machine has a drawback in that it slices a wood stock in the direction lateral to the wood fibers. The product thus sliced has only a rough surface and thus a final finishing job must be performed if the product should be used per se without the application of paint. A second drawback is that the sliced product is liable to break. Thus, those skilled in the art are highly desirous of obtaining a slicer machine by which the slicing can be performed in the direction in which the wood fibers substantially extend.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is thus the main object of the present invention to provide a slicer machine in which the slicing operation can be performed in the direction parallel to the extending direction of the wood fibers.

For attaining the above object, the slicer machine according to this invention comprises, in combination a stationary table having a plurality of freely rotatable guide rollers arranged in the advancing direction of a wood stock to be subjected to an axial slicing; a vertically adjustable stock feed unit having a rotatable belt means and a slicer knife unit mounted on said table and including a slicer knife having a certain acute attack angle relative to the advancing direction of the stock.

These and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent when read the following detailed description of the invention by reference to the accompanying drawings illustrative of substantially a preferred embodiment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view partly diagrammatic of the wood slicer machine according to this invention, and partially broken away for the demonstration of several inner working parts,

FIG. 2 is an end view of the slicer machine shown in FIG. 1 when seen from the right-hand end thereof, in which certain parts are shown only schematically,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevational view of a stockfeeder unit employed, said unit being shown with its housing removed and in two parts which must be joined together into a single figure by overlapping the two separation lines X-X, shown therein with each other,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view, partially in section and partially broken away, of the stock feeder unit, being shown, however, in two partswhich must be joined together into a single figure by overlapping the two separation lines Y-Y, shown therein with each other,

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view of a slicer knife unit employed,

FIG. 6 is a vertical section of the slicer knife unit, together with its cooperating stock guide unit, and

FIG. 7 is a plan view, partially in section, of a positioning mechanism for the stock feeder unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION plate is rigidly mounted on a floor, not shown. A boxtype rigid stand is rigidly attached to the base plate 1. At the top end of the stand 2, a stock guide base 3 is rigidly attached and provided with a number of freely rotatable guide rollers 4 which are arranged in a horizontal row for guiding a wood stock 5 only schematically and partially shown; A switch box 6 schematically shown is attached dependingly to the stock guide base 3 and includes main and auxiliary switches, fuses and the like electrical parts, not shown.

A pair of vertical tubular pillars and 9 are rigidly mounted on the stock guide base 3 and a stock feeder unit generally shown at w is arranged 'slidably along these tubular pillars 3 and 9. A tube or conduit 7 is provided between the switch box 6 and the stand 2 for guiding a plurality of electrical conductors, not shown. At the upper ends of the pillars, 8 and 9 an operating unit, generally shown at 131 is rigidly attached thereto.

A drive motor 12, 25 H.P., for instance, is rigidly supported on a support arm 13 which is rigidly incorporated with a gear box M, only shown by its outside configuration and attached rigidly to a housing Illa of the unit 10 which is provided with a pair of pulleys l5 and 16, as seen in FIG. 3. The pulley 15 is a drive pulley and the pulley 16 is a driven pulley. A rubberbelt i7 is trained around these pulleys l5 and 116, and a screw type belt tightner 18 of conventional design is provided for the driven pulley 16 which can be adjusted in its position to-and-fro horizontally in FIG. 3.

When a main switch, not shown, in the switch box 6 is closed, current is conducted from a power supply source, not shown, through suitable conductor means, not shown, to the drive motor 12, and thus motion is transmitted therefrom through the gear box 141 to drive pulley 15. In this way, this pulley R5 is rotated clockwise in FIGS. 1 and 3 and the feeder belt 17 is rotated in the same direction. For keeping the lower side run or flight of the belt 37 in a resiliently supported substantially horizontal position, the unit ill is provided with a plurality of guide rollers 19, each of the latter rollers being subject to pressure at each end from above by an adjustable screw bolt 20 fitted at its lowermost end with a spring mount 2%, a pressurizing coil spring 21 and a bearing block 22 for support of the roller end. The drive pulley 1-5 is provided with a rigid arm 23 which is united integrally with an attaching plate 24 bolted at 25 to a large block member 26 attached fixedly to the housing we of the unit 10, although the fixing means have been omitted from the drawing only for simplicity. This block member 26 supports threadingly all of said adjustable screw bolts 2b and has a proper hollow space for the provision of said coils 21. As suggested in FIG. 3, each of the bearing blocks 22 is mounted in the block member 26 slidably in a receiving groove 26a. Each of these bearing bloclrs 22 is backed up from below by an adjustable bolt 27.

The operating unit ll comprises a stationary housing 2% which mounts rotatably a shaft through suitable bearing means, not shown, with the outer end of said shaft 29 being provided with a manipulating handle 30, while the inner end of said shaft is provided with a bevel pinion 31 which meshes with a bevel gear 32 mounted on top of a threaded vertical shaft 33, with said housing 10a of the unit ill being kept in threading engagement therewith. Thus, it will be seen that by manipulating the handle 30 in one or another direction,

the unit ill can be lowered or elevated as desired.

The housing 28 mounts an auxiliary electric motor 34 which is mechanically connected through a belt 35, a pulley 36 and a reduction gearing 37 with a horizontal shaft 38 which is further mechanically connected through a further reduction gearing 40 with said shaft 29 via a certain friction clutch means, not shown. Thus, it will be seen from the foregoing that the operating shaft 29 can be electrically driven in place of the manual operation by means of the handle 30. This electrically drivable feature can be more specifically seen from FIG. '7. Necessary conductor means for driving the main motor 12 and the auxiliary motor 34 can be led through the interior space of stand 2 and the hollow pillars 8 and 9, although not specifically shown and described.

By observing FIG. 3, the rotatable mounting mode of the drive pulley 15 and of the guide rollers 19 can be understood more clearly. In addition, the rotatable and adjustable arrangement of the driven pulley 16 may also be clearly seen. As shown, there are practically two sets of belt tighteners 18, each of which is arranged to cooperate with an eccentric screw adjuster 118 to position the pulley l6 properly.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6, a slicer knife unit 139 is clearly seen which comprises a cutter blade chip 140 having an inclined cutting edge 140a arranged to have an attack angle ranging normally from about 15 to about 30 relative to the stock advancing direction shown by an arrow 41 in FIG. 5. A main blade body 42 is metallurgically united with said chip 140 and a plurality of attaching grooves 420. The blade body 42 is attached fixedly to a mount piece 43 by means of set screws 44. This cutter blade and mount piece assembly is fixedly mounted on the guide base 3 in close proximity to a slice-guiding opening generally shown at 45 in FIG. 6 in such a way that it covers substantially the uppermost part of said opening 45. The effective width of the cutting edge 140a as measured laterally relative to the stock feeding direction is denoted W which is seen in FIGS. and 6. The axial cutting edge 140a as measured in the stock feeding direction is denoted with L.

In opposition to the cutting edge 140a and at a small gap distance G therefrom, with said gap being shown, however, somewhat exaggerated in FIG. 6, a guide chip 46 is provided which is metallurgically united with a guide piece 47 attached from above to the stock guide base 3 by means of a plurality of set bolts 48, only one of which is shown in FIG. 6.

The operation of the wood slicer machine so far shown and described is as follows:

A wood stock 5, preferably a thick and elongated plate or rectangular sectioned elongated pillar, shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 only schematically by chain-dotted lines, is placed by its front end on the right-hand end of the guide base 3 and on the right-hand most one of the stock guide rollers 4. For performing this preparatory job in an easier way, a leading auxiliary stock guide table can be provided, although not shown.

Next, the handle 30 is turned clockwise when seen in FIG. 2, so as to lower a proper distance the stock feed unit for establishing a suitable height H. In this adjusted position of the unit 10, the lower surface of lower run of the feeding belt 17 can be brought into pressure contact with the upper surface of the stock 5. As was suggested hereinbefore, the auxiliary motor 34 can be energized so as to lower the unit 10 electrically.

Then, the drive motor 12 is energized, so as to move the feed belt 17 constantly in a clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 1.

A small manual push is exerted upon the stock in the forward or advancing direction from the right to left in FIG. 1, and the stock will be caught by the moving belt 17 between the belt and the stock guide rollers 4. Then, the stock is subjected to a mechanical feed in its advancing direction, thus passing through the slicing gap G under pressure applied from above under the influence of the resiliently pressurized pressure rollers 8.

Upon striking against the somewhat upwardly projecting cutting edge 140a, a sliced wood sheet product will be sliced from the stock 5 and downwardly discharged through the opening 45 into a product accumulation chamber, not shown, which can be formed in the interior space of the hollow stand 2, while the stock subjected to such slicing operation is being advanced still further.

In this way, a number of similar stocks may be subjected to the partial slicing. The product is shown at 149.

A similar slicing operation can be performed in a similar way, yet upon lowering the unit 10 still further by a definite dimension equal to the thickness of the sliced product. This operation can be repeated until the stock has an ample dimension in its thickness so as to provide a sliced product. According to my experimental results, the sliced products thus prepared have a surprisingly beautiful finish and thus no more finishing operations may be required.

The stock can be repeatedly treated in a rectangular route. For this purpose, a series of horizontally arranged guide rollers 50 and' provided so as to smoothly transfer the once sliced stock laterally, and then it is fed in the reversed axial direction and in parallel to the aforementioned forward slicing feed travel route on the guide rollers 4. At the initial or entrance end, a similar series of lateral feed guide rollers 51 (FIG. 2) are provided for performing the reversed lateral travel of the stock so as to bring it to its initial position by turning it at each change of the travelling direction. In this respect, these rollers 51 have been omitted from FIG. 1 only for simplicity.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are as follows:

1. A wood slicing machine comprising a stationary table having a plurality of freely rotatable horizontal guide rollers arranged in the. advancing direction of a wood stock to be sliced, a stock feed unit including an endless horizontally movable belt, means mounting the feed unit above the table with the belt in substantial parallel relationship to the guide rollers, further means for adjusting the feed unit vertically with respect to the table, the feed unit further including a plurality of axially spaced spring-loaded means for applying pressure to the lower run of the endless belt to bring the lower run into pressure contact with the wood stock positioned between the belt and the guide rollers for advancing the wood stock, the table having a guiding opening for wood slices, and a slicer unit mounted on the table in operative relationship to the guiding opening, said slicer unit including a cutter blade provided with an inclined cutting edge having an attack angle from approximately 15 to 30 relative to the advancing direction of the stock, and a guide piece spaced from and in parallel relationship to the cutting edge providing a gap in communication with the guiding opening through which gap the slice passes into the guiding opening.

2. The wood slicing machine as claimed in claim 1, in which said feed unit includes a horizontally positioned housing having an open lower end, with the endless belt mounted within the housing, with the lower run thereof projecting through the open lower end, said feed unit mounting means including a pair of vertical pillars mounted on the table laterally of the slicer unit, the housing being slidably mounted on the pillars, the feed unit adjusting means including a vertical threaded shaft threadedly engaging the housing, a first gear means on the shaft, and a second complemental gear means meshing with the first gear means so that rotation of the second gear means imparts rotary movement to the shaft via the first gear means.

3. The wood slicing machine as claimed in claim 2, in which the axially spaced spring-loaded means includes a plurality of horizontal rollers engaging the lower run of the endless belt, a bearing block supporting each end of each roller, a vertical bolt positioned above each guide block, a coil spring biased between each bolt and each bearing block, and a means for adjusting the position of each bolt with respect to the bearing block.

4. The wood slicing machine as claimed in claim 2, including a rotatable shaft, said second gear means being mounted on said shaft, and means for imparting rotation to the shaft and second gear means to rotate the first gear means and vertical threaded shaft. 

1. A wood slicing machine comprising a stationary table having a plurality of freely rotatable horizontal guide rollers arranged in the advancing direction of a wood stock to be sliced, a stock feed unit including an endless horizontally movable belt, means mounting the feed unit above the table with the belt in substantial parallel relationship to the guide rollers, further means for adjusting the feed unit vertically with respect to the table, the feed unit further including a plurality of axially spaced spring-loaded means for applying pressure to the lower run of the endless belt to bring the lower run into pressure contact with the wood stock positioned between the belt and the guide rollers for advancing the wood stock, the table having a guiding opening for wood slices, and a slicer unit mounted on the table in operative relationship to the guiding opening, said slicer unit including a cutter blade provided with an inclined cutting edge having an attack angle from approximately 15* to 30* relative to the advancing direction of the stock, and a guide piece spaced from and in parallel relationship to the cutting edge providing a gap in communication with the guiding opening through which gap the slice passes into the guiding opening.
 2. The wood slicing machine as claimed in claim 1, in which said feed unit includes a horizontally positioned housing having an open lower end, with the endless belt mounted within the housing, with the lower run thereof projecting through the open lower end, said feed unit mounting means including a pair of vertical pillars mounted on the table laterally of the slicer unit, the housing being slidabLy mounted on the pillars, the feed unit adjusting means including a vertical threaded shaft threadedly engaging the housing, a first gear means on the shaft, and a second complemental gear means meshing with the first gear means so that rotation of the second gear means imparts rotary movement to the shaft via the first gear means.
 3. The wood slicing machine as claimed in claim 2, in which the axially spaced spring-loaded means includes a plurality of horizontal rollers engaging the lower run of the endless belt, a bearing block supporting each end of each roller, a vertical bolt positioned above each guide block, a coil spring biased between each bolt and each bearing block, and a means for adjusting the position of each bolt with respect to the bearing block.
 4. The wood slicing machine as claimed in claim 2, including a rotatable shaft, said second gear means being mounted on said shaft, and means for imparting rotation to the shaft and second gear means to rotate the first gear means and vertical threaded shaft. 